Several opererations in Illustrator CS5 are painfully slow including saving, printing, and switching to Photoshop after copying.

Here's my sitch:

Windows XP Professional SP3

Desktop PC, Intel Core2 Quad CPU @ 2.33 GHz

3GB RAM

Lots of empty storage on three internal drives (including C drive).

Adobe Design Premium CS5. All updates are current.

No unusual problems with Acrobat, Photoshop, or InDesign.

In a nutshell, this problem doesn’t occur if a file has only points, paths or type that I generated myself. However, if I open a raster image, paste type, or open vector art from an outside source, certain operations take a very long time, even though my files are typically small with few layers and no effects. In each case, the operation takes between 40 and 70 seconds. They include:

Copying and pasting within Illustrator works fine but if, at any time, I try to switch over to Photoshop, both programs will be unresponsive for between 40 and 70 seconds, even if hours have elapsed beforehand.

In dealing with this problem, I’ve tried resetting my preferences, as well as uninstalling and reinstalling Illustrator. Neither made any difference. I therefore seek your wisdom and pity.

You simply don't have enough RAM. It's as easy as that. When printing or saving AI generates rasterized data and duplicates data internally for previewing and that can take a moment. Likewise, reshuffling memory to bring inactive apps into view is a normal Windows thing. Sorry to be so blkunt, but most smatphones have more memory and processing power than your machine and if you are serious about the matter, you seriously need to get a new machine with a 64bit operating system and at least 8GB of RAM, which for all intents and purposes even many core5i based laptops already have these days.

In fact, that a posibility that I discussed with my IT guy and, of course, I'd always want more RAM. I have to say, though, that I have used previous versions (CS3, CS4) on similar machines with no problem. Also, this machine can handle very large files (>500MB) with lots of layers, smart objects, and effects in Photoshop. Is Illustrator CS5 that much more demanding? I rarely create AI files larger than 10MB. I appreciate your help!

That's my thinking. I'll get back to you after I talk to my IT guy. By the way, after I stated that this machine handles 500MB files, I did a quick inventory of my files to verify the truth of the matter. In fact. My absolute biggest Photoshop files are around 325MB, and, while the machine does "handle" them, it does take some time to open and save them. My bad.